Accounting and structural reforms: A case study of Egyptian electricity

Abstract

This paper theorizes accounting's role in realizing the state's political ambitions. It triangulates Dillard et al.'s (2004) institutional theory framework with historical institutionalism in order to trace the institutional layers and political processes that connect micro-organizational changes with ideological transformations within the political state. Data comes from an 'extended case study' comprising a three-month fieldwork into an Egyptian electricity company's cost management practices and an extensive review of secondary materials on Egypt's electricitysector reforms. Empirical findings provide insights into the ways in which accounting plays a political role in institutionalizing structural reforms and how that role evolves with the political ideologies of the state. Accounting's political role during the colonial regime was speculation of commercial and scientific gains, while it was signification of centralized political power during the postcolonial military regime. Accounting's role during the neoliberal regime was paradoxical -simultaneously a reformation technology and a deficient institutional apparatus that hindered privatization. Accounting takes political meanings when it institutionalizes the state's reformative ideologies. Accounting makes the connections between the macro-political and microorganizational.

Behind the World Bank’s ringing declarations of “social accountability”: Ghana’s public financial management reform

“…Our study also extends other critical accounting studies' contributions to WB operations in peripheral nations (e.g., Alawattage and Alsaid 2017;Annisette 2004;Uddin andHopper 2001, 2003). In line with these, it highlights WB' s ideological, structural and programmatic inclinations towards systems of accountability and accounting that superimpose and privilege a rather narrow economic version of development and performance management.…”

“…It is no exaggeration to say that the ' critical' accounting agenda in LDCs has largely involved theorising the way global development discourses have penetrated their cultural-economic and political spaces. Since its mid-1990s beginnings by a set of Manchester PhDs (e.g., Annisette 1996;Uddin 1997;Wickramasinghe 1996), this project has grown significantly, encapsulating various issues pertaining to, for example, accounting implications in structural reforms (e.g., Alawattage and Alsaid 2017;Uddin and Hopper 2001); accounting and indigenous cultural practices (e.g., Davie 2000Davie , 2005Gallhofer and Chew 2000;; development of the accounting profession in postcolonial contexts (e.g., Annisette 2000Annisette , 2003Dyball et al 2007); accountability in the civil society (e.g., Wickramasinghe 2008, 2009;Jayasinghe and Wickramasinghe 2007); post and neo-colonial dynamics in public sector accountability (e.g., Lassou and Hopper, 2016;Lassou et al, 2019); and corporate social and environmental accountability (e.g., Alawattage and Fernando 2017;Belal et al 2013;Kamla 2015). Recently, however, perhaps because of accountability' s increasing political significance in this neoliberal time, the accountability dynamics of development has received much more explicit and concentrated effort (e.g., Alawattage and Fernando 2017;O'Leary 2017;O'Dwyer and Unerman 2008;Roberts 1991;Roberts and Scapens 1985).…”

“…Critical accounting research has explained how accounting reforms became central to WB' s neoliberal reformative ideology and why modernizing accounting practices became a prerequisite for enhancing market efficiency and improving the efficacy of organizational control (see Alawattage and Alsaid 2017). As such, WB envisaged massive investments in restructuring LDCs' accounting systems via such endeavours as making harmonisation of accounting standards and accounting education conditions of its loans (see Annisette 2004;Saravanamuthu 2004;Uddin and Hopper 2003).…”

The Politics of Accountability and Participation: A Case study of Samoa's Land Reform

“…Since the mid-1990s, the critical accounting agenda for developing countries has largely involved studying the way global development discourses have influenced various economic, cultural and political spaces. This agenda has encapsulated diverse issues pertaining to accounting implications in structural reforms (Alawattage & Alsaid, 2017;Hopper, 2017;Uddin & Hopper, 2001), accounting and Indigenous cultures, (for example, Davie, 2000;Gallhofer & Chew, 2000) and the development of the accounting profession in post-colonial settings (Annisette, 2003;Dyball, Poullaos & Chua, 2007). In terms of accountability, critical scholars have also researched accountability for civil society groups (Alawattage, 2009;Alawattage & Wickramasinghe, 2008;Jayasinghe & Wickramasinghe, 2007), post and neo-colonial dynamics in public sector accountability and corporate social and environmental accountability (Alawattage & Fernando, 2017;Belal, Cooper & Roberts, 2013;Kamla, 2015).…”

“…Amongst the critical accounting agenda is the growing research interest into the influence of transnational development institutions, particularly the World Bank and IMF, which have arguably become the focus of global governance (Mundy & Verger, 2015) with these two powerful institutions possessing the means for persuading governments to adopt accounting reforms for development purposes (Adhikari & Jayasinghe, 2017;Lassou & Hopper, 2016;Hopper, 2017). For example, Alawattage and Alsaid (2017) have explained why accounting reforms have become central to the World Bank's neoliberal reform ideology and why modernising accounting practices has been seen as essential for enhancing market efficiency and organisational control. Other critical accounting analyses of the World Bank and its structural reforms, focusing on how the World Bank capitalises on its institutional and economic power to impose governance practices and ideologies on developing countries, have largely postulated such reforms as hegemonic impositions.…”